Welcome to Hell

This movie feels more like a sequel to Rosemary's Baby. For whatever reason they called it a Silent Night, Deadly Night sequel, and had it set at Christmas time. Just like Pt. 3, it's Christmas in L.A., so now snow on the ground.

Clint Howard's character is named Ricky, which has to be more than just a coincidence. But I can't see how this Ricky can be tied to the Ricky in Pt.2 and 3.

Screaming Mad George still has the cochroach puppets left over from Nightmare On Elm Street 4.

It's good to see Reggie Banister in a movie not directed by Don Coscorelli.

This film is totally insane...and by totally insane, I mean that is totally insane to imagine that someone watched any of the previous three Silent Night, Deadly Night films...before dreaming up this lesbian cult bio-horror as an appropriate sequel.

In fact, the only logical explanation is that this was a completely separate project, that was already written- and possibly even partially filmed already- when Yuzna had it appropriated by the SNDN franchise...after which he shot a few extra scenes, as to sell the Ricky connection (which is weak as f*ck, at best- and doesn't make sense at all, if you think about it).

You could easily go through and watch this entire film without a) realizing it takes place on or around Christmas, and b) that the mental patient that is subservient to the lesbian cult is supposed to be Ricky.

It was likely a pre-existing film called Initiation, that they added to the SNDN franchise, because after the second and third films were flops- they figured Yuzna could somehow revive it from it's death throes, by sketchily attempting to tie it into the ongoing storyline, after the fact.

With that being said, it's actually a pretty good little film. It starts off with an anti-Vertigo vibe, but then turns more into a Rosemary's Baby sort of thing. And it has a feminist angle woven throughout. But all this is secondary to it being only remotely connected (and forced, at that) to the original franchise- whose name it bears.

Worth a watch if you are into lesbian cults, bio-horror, or Clint Howard.

5.5 out of 10.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (1990)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A woman puts herself on fire and jumps from the roof of a building and the next day a reporter (Neith Hunter) tries to figure out why. The woman begins to investigate the neighborhood and soon meets a store owner who might be hiding a few secrets about the dead woman as well as a secret cult. Those wanting to see a killer Santa Claus are going to be disappointed because the fat man doesn't make an appearance here except for a brief clip from the previous movie. Director Yunza put his name on two film series from the 80s with this one and of course the much better RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3. This film here isn't awful but there's simply nothing here we haven't seen before and in the end the thing is just too weak to be entertaining. The screenplay makes a fatal mistake in letting the viewers be a lot smarter than our female lead. Pretty much we have this woman getting in over her head and the viewer must sit back and watch her do one dumb thing after another. The problem with this is that she does the dumbest things possible and yet she keeps doing them over and over. A long running plot device has her eating a "berry", which of course turns out to be something from the cult. After eating this thing she eventually begins to see various bugs running around and starts to puke them up as well. It gets rather annoying because as a reporter you'd expect her to have a brain but she continues to do one dumb thing after another. The screenplay also features some fairly weak dialogue and various situations that simply go no where and this includes all the stuff dealing with the boyfriend who doesn't treat the reporter good enough. Those wanting nudity will get a little. Those wanting violence will get a little but not much. There's some minor gore but not enough to keep those wanting all the red stuff entertained. The film contains a lot of bug stuff so those creeped out by the critters running around will probably find this stuff effective. You also have a large creature that seems to have been inspired by the monster in William Castle's THE TINGLER. Hunter isn't too bad in the film as she at least keeps you interested in the character. The rest of the supporting cast are decent at best and this includes Clint Howard playing the typical psycho you'd expect him to be playing outside of his brother's films. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4 stays away from the controversy of the previous film and I can respect the filmmakers for trying to do something new with the series but in the end it's just something we've seen countless times before. If you're going to do a movie about a woman getting involved with witches then you need to try something fresher than what's here.

A young reporter investigating a bizarre death becomes involved with a coven of modern day witches headed by Maud Adams. Good script and effects, but by the numbers acting and direction almost destroy it. Maud Adams outclasses the whole production. Rated R; Adult Themes, Sexual Situations, Nudity, Violence, and Profanity.

"Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 4: Intiation" is one strange movie. In fact, I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before. And I've seen a lot of films. It is about a Los Angeles journalist who is investigating a woman's death around Christmastime. The woman spontaneously combusted and leaped from the top of a building downtown. While asking the owner of a bookstore (Maude Adams) within the building about the strange death, she is lead into a sacrificial cult of modern day witches that plan on using her for one of their sacrificial ceremonies on Christmas Eve.

Take elements from "Rosemary's Baby" and throw in some nasty monster creatures and feminist witches in a Christmas setting, and you've got this movie. I swear, this movie is one of the weirdest movies I think I've seen. There are a lot of strange bugs and creatures throughout the film that are really disgusting. Bizarre events and sequences take place throughout the movie. This film has pretty decent acting, Maude Adams is the best of the cast as the head of the cult, and the special effects are pretty cheap but sufficient. Since it's Los Angeles and there's no snow, the Christmastime mood isn't really set here, but the film didn't really have anything to do the Christmas anyway. And the sequence where Ricky attacks Kim and her boyfriend in the apartment was pretty well-done.

This is the only "Silent Night, Deadly Night" film that I've seen so far, but still I'd probably only recommend this to hardcore fans of the "Silent Night, Deadly Night" series, and from what I know this sequel is unrelated to the other films. It's entertaining and has some good moments, but it's a little far out there. I liked it though, oddly enough. 6/10.